Armenian nuclear power plant reconnected to national energy system
YEREVAN, October 18. /ARKA/. On October 17, Armenia’s nuclear power plant (NPP) in Metsamor was reconnected to the national power grid after a major repair, which was part of a project designed to modernize and extend the service life of the facility, Rusatom Service (a division of Russian state atomic corporation Rosatom), the general contractor of the project, said today.
The plant was brought to a halt on May 15 and was disconnected from the power grid for almost five months.
‘I am proud of the staff of the nuclear power plant, who have shown high professionalism and true teamwork in cooperation with specialists from Rosatom. During the repair, I was convinced once again that the indisputable priority for all involved people was the safety and reliability of the nuclear power plant,” said General Director of the plant Eduard Martirosyan. According to him, the Armenian NPP is ready for extension of its service life until 2016.
According to Rusatom Service, since 2015, some $250 million worth new equipment has been purchased for the plant. The modernization included modernization of the sprinkler and the power supply systems, automation and control systems and the equipment of the turbine hall have been completely replaced, enabling to increase electricity generation by 10-15% without additional fuel consumption.
Some 150 railway cars of large-sized equipment were delivered to the plant from Russia, including a stator and a rotor weighing 180 tons for the plant’s turbine generator, also 25 meter long steam turbines, transformers and other large and heavy equipment.
Delivery to the Armenian NPP was carried out by land transport, by sea, as well as by rail. In order to deliver all the necessary equipment to the plant, the Armavir-Arshaluis railway was repaired. The emergency cooling system of the reactor core was modernized and the nuclear fuel storage pool was repaired. The only thing that could not be modernized or replaced is the reactor vessel - the main irreplaceable element of any nuclear power plant. Instead, it was annealed. To that end an annealing unit as high as a two-story house was delivered and assembled on the spot, and fuel and equipment were unloaded from the reactor. Annealing made it possible to return the operational characteristics of the reactor metal to its original state by 80-85%.
“Rosatom, as a global leader, understands the importance of nuclear power generation for Armenia. Therefore, for our part, we have made every effort to ensure that the modernization takes place in the shortest possible time and at a high technical level," said General Director of Rusatom Service Yevgeny Salkov.
"During the work, our engineers were always present at the plant, and this year alone, despite the severe pandemic restrictions, 300 Russian specialists worked on the site. I want to emphasize that our cooperation did not end. There is a constant exchange of experience and technical support between Rosatom and the Armenian NPP," Salkov said.
The Armenian Nuclear Power Plant is located some 30 kilometers west of Yerevan. It was built in the 1970s but was closed following a devastating earthquake in 1988. One of its two VVER 440-V230 light-water reactors was reactivated in 1995.
In March 2014, Armenian government decided to extend the plant’s service life up to 2026 because of delay in building a new unit. The service life extension has become possible thanks to Russia’s financial resources. The country provided $270 million to Armenia as a loan and $30 million as a grant. -0-
